Miata Mailing List: November 1998, Message #371

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Hi Everyone,

Got some noises that i can't figure out.  Hope you all can help.  Its very frustrating considering the car only has 7500 miles on it.

First.......rattling at 3500.  Most likely a heat shield. Sounds like it yet it goes away once the car is thoroughly warmed up.  Any ideas?

Second and more annoying.....I am getting a rattling noise that sounds like a small diametered metal tube or bar banging up against some metal frame or sheet metal.  It only happens on rough roads and appears to be coming from under the bench area directly behind the seats.  

When I say bench, I mean the flat carpeted area below the rear cockpit brace where the window rests when the top is down.

Not sure if this is exactly where it is coming from but this is my best guess.

Could it be related to the shield rattle?  Also,  how do it remove the plastic rivets on the carpeting to get to this area.  Is the bench area accessable?  There are also different rivets on the inside of the trunk.  How do I remove these to try to access the area?  Sounds and locations are very difficult to pinpoint and describe so I apologise for my losy descriptions.

Please.......any help would be greatly appreciated.  I checked the sqeaks and rattles page on miata.net but there was nothing that sounded like this sound.

Thanks for any suggestions.  

Alan Camhi
97 touring package